


you call me up because you know i'll be there

by wildforwyld



Series: You With The Sad Eyes [3]
Category: Lost in Translation (Webcomic)
Genre: D.Min's Birthday Week, Gen, Piano, Piano Fingers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-19 07:54:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29623053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildforwyld/pseuds/wildforwyld
Summary: The piano's a part of him, and has been since the very beginning3 of 7, D.Min's Birthday week
Relationships: Dongho | D.Min & His Cat
Series: You With The Sad Eyes [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2172609
Kudos: 6
Collections: D.Min Birthday Week 2021





	you call me up because you know i'll be there

A kitten is like a child to Dongho. Anything and everything can pose a potential danger and hazard to them, if not taken care of appropriately. Dongho’s method of “taking care” of them? Toss everything sharp, electrical, or poisonous into a bag and take it away to bury in someone’s room. And no, he’s not joking. Nobody’s allowed to take anything out of the bag unless the cat is completely locked in Dongho and Minsoo’s room (where the elder male created a “safe space” in the corner by his bed, to keep the kitten from  _ somehow _ breaking something, whether external or otherwise). 

Even then, once the user of anything remotely dangerous is finished, they must thoroughly clean up after themselves—with subsequent inspection done by Dongho himself, of course—and return everything to its original place in the bag. Such a process was so tedious that the other three actively found ways around opening the “bag of doom” for any reason.

Dongho sits down, exhausted after collecting every hazardous object he could find, and watches the cat as he dances, tossing around a spare shoelace everyone else forgot to pick up. 

It’s been a few months since Boba died, hasn’t it? God, and it seemed so long ago since Jeongmin messaged him that one night. Dongho can still feel the rush of chilling despair blasting through him the moment he got the text.

God, it’s been a while.

His gaze drifts from the cat to his keyboard, leaning against the wall. Hah. He loves the cat, but a keyboard stand would be nice too, so he could play and write things down at the same time.

Well. He might as well play, since there’s nothing to do, nowhere to really go. It’s actually been a long time since he last touched his keyboard, with how busy he and MAYHEM have been with the last promotions. 

What should he play? What sort of tune dares to break the silence within him? Normally, his head would be filled with the sound of music, all sorts of melodies and noise creating a wonderful cacophony of nothing, yet also everything. 

But...his mind is unusually silent today. The one beat that had been stuck in his head all throughout the morning, afternoon and evening the day before is now gone. Where’d it go? Shit, he better not have forgotten it completely. It’ll bother him to no end.

With one, curious finger, Dongho gingerly presses the cold, ivorite keys in, inhaling a sharp breath at the first note that slices the air. His keyboard was on full volume. Oops.

God, why is his head so empty? It’s unbearable, having nothing going on up there, like trying to work in a silent house. Some may find it comforting. He sees it as depressing and ever so lonely.

Dongho, again, lays a single digit against a key, gradually lowering it to produce a drawn out, soothing tone. He rests another finger on the next key to the first’s right, and pushes it down as his first finger releases.

**C...D...E...F...G...A...B...C**

**C, D, E, F, G, A, B, CDEFGA,** **_CDEFGA, CDEFGA CDEFGA CDEFGA_ **

Just like the first time he remembered learning it. His eyes wander back to his kitten as he begins ‘plunking’, the tip of his index finger repeatedly pressing down, releasing, and pressing down again at a pace matching that of his kitten’s tail, flickering back and forth as he starts swatting at a stray sock. 

As if a stroke of lightning, or perhaps luck, had hit him, Dongho recalls the beat he had ingrained in his head yesterday, thumping like a bass drum permanently stuck in his mind. He runs to fetch his phone, hits ‘start’ on the audio recorder, and begins to play it, relishing the satisfaction of turning this once long-lost and forgotten idea into a perfect harmony in reality. God, there's no feeling better than this one.

His cat watches him from the bed, distant and frozen in time, one paw lifted in the midst of taking a step, and his pupils dilated in a rapt trance. Given two seconds of uninterrupted sound, Dongho looks up to the sight of the kitten bouncing over, ready to pounce onto his keyboard. He just manages to remove his hands before the cat strikes, smashing keys and creating an adorable racket.

A chuckle escapes from the man as he pictures Boba in his kittenhood, doing just the same, bouncing onto keys and scaring himself with the noisy and scattered sounds they produced. The only difference was their graceful landings. Boba had fallen off just three seconds after jumping on, while this cat, in his zestful frenzy, manages to somehow keep himself on.

Hm. He should name him 'Popcorn'. 

Dongho moves back to face his keyboard and—stops. His hands are stiff, despite their lack of use. Maybe he’s just out of shape. After all, he’s always had ‘pianist fingers’, as his last instructor had always told him. Jeongmin was the one who initially began his passion for music, as he had given lessons back in Dongho’s youth. When he became too advanced for Jeongmin to keep up, his mom agreed to get him an instructor, as piano-playing was “a fine skill to have”. 

Her name was Ms. Seong. A sickly, yet bewitching lady with perpetually glazed-over eyes, and a faraway look on her face that gave the impression she had been raised in a museum. She always used to come over and help him play, labeling the keys despite his insistence that he had already memorized the order.

“Pianist fingers,” she had called the,. “A pianist's hands must be long, flexible and preferably attractive. Luckily, yours are an exceptional fit. How could it be so perfect, that hands like yours fulfill their destined purpose?”

Hah, it’s been so long since he last had lessons. He even considered tutoring his own student, just to put his skills to a bit more use, until he realized that he was, in fact,  _ not _ made to teach. How did Ms. Seong maintain her patience all these years? And where is she now? Dongho almost misses her. 

He stands up and turns off his keyboard. That burst of inspiration that had possessed him for just a second was gone. Maybe he should get to that another day. 

**Author's Note:**

> [LiT Fic Discord)](https://discord.gg/JAXtejPa9C)


End file.
